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ink jet drop analysis

In the early development stages of ink jet printers there was a need to analyze the drop formation characteristic of ink jet head designs.

A test station was developed that captured relatively high speed images of the ink drops as they left the ink jet head.

This project was completed before high speed digital cameras were available so the captures were accomplished through the implementation of a single line, 1000 element CCD array. The electronic circuit, interface and software were developed for this project and were critical components of the test station.

By "pushing" a series of time slices into memory a 2 dimensional picture of the droplets provided important information for the design engineers. Characteristics such as the droplet size, the propagation delay, the size and number of secondary droplets could be measured, typical to as is shown.

(Note: The results from this test stations were instrumental in promoting the pursuit of solid wax ink jet technology.)